Seeing the Sun
by luckfoser
Summary: [REWRITE] All things considered, Meg's a pretty lucky kid. She and her adoptive siblings were saved from a life on the streets at a young age and welcomed into society with open arms. When a new student transfers into Meg's high school, she thinks the other girl is in the same boat. Unfortunately, Jo's life is more complicated than she lets on.
1. Chapter 1

A lifetime of going to class never seems to make getting up in the morning easier.

For all the praise she's heard for routine, it gets awfully tiring. She wakes up early, showers, and helps the others get ready before walking them to school. She's always so tired that she's convinced one day she'll accidentally walk the kids into traffic, and to this day she has no idea why Sam thinks she can handle supervising three kids every morning. As she leads the three children through the streets, she wonders despite herself why such a busy man adopted four orphans.

Things are always harder to do once things start getting colder, the low temperature sapping what little energy she has after waking up. She holds her coffee close to her in the hand that's not leading Shirley, desperately trying to steal its warmth as they make their way to the kids' school. She's never been good at handling the cold, and winter will likely only get worse before it gets any better.

Dropping the others off at their school makes the rest of the walk more peaceful, but makes the chill in the air that much harder to ignore. She pulls her jacket tighter around her form, looking up at the sky. It's overcast today just like it has been every other day of the week, not that the sun would warm her up all that much. The even layer of clouds obscuring the sun is only interrupted by leafless branches until she gets to the high school.

The building is tall, it's dull gray bricks only slightly darker than the cold morning sky, it's appearance about as unremarkable as the classes inside, students pouring in from the sprawling campus and heading to their first periods. Meg checks her watch, brow furrowing when she notices how little time she has until she has to do the same. She speeds up, hoping to have a few minutes to spare before the class starts.

Unfortunately, she doesn't get too far. She stops in her tracks when she sees Sam's boss standing in front of the entryway. She's always been wary of the older woman; Takane Katsu had been the one to find Meg and the others back when they were nothing but young squatters whose worst crime besides trespassing was stealing food, and she was no less intimidating now than she was when Meg was 14 years old. She can make out the officer's loud, authoritative voice from here, but can't quite catch what she's saying.

After convincing herself that officer Katsu isn't going to strike her down for loitering, she looks at the people the officer is talking to. She's surprised to find that Takane is the only one she recognizes, though judging by the the appearances of the other two people in the group she's starting to doubt that either of them are cops.

A woman with neatly styled black hair is the only one who's actually talking to Takane, and even from this distance the way she talks makes Meg's hair stand on end. Her voice is cold and officious, her words clipped, and she's surprised even Takane can stand to hold a conversation with her. Sure, Takane can be terrifying in her overly violent enforcement, but at least she's not quite so distant. Meg starts to walk past carefully, as though skirting around a trap, when she notices the other girl.

Given how she carries herself, it's no surprise she escaped Meg's notice. The stark contrast between her dark skin and white hair makes her stick out like a sore thumb, but she slouches, commands herself with a kind of apathy so strong it counteracts her bizarre appearance. A huge, red jacket covers her frame, half of her face visible behind a yellow fur trim, eyes closed against the dim light passing through the clouds.

"Well, if it isn't Meg!" The girl in question jumps, terror briefly flashing in her gaze as Takane waves her over. "I almost forgot Sam sent you here, kid! Come say hello to your new classmate."

Meg obeys because it would be stupid not to, though her right hand grips the strap on her bookbag so tightly her knuckles turn white. (Takane had made an awfully strong first impression all those years ago. It is, in Meg's opinion, perfectly valid for her to still be just a little bit scared of her, and anyone who tells her otherwise hasn't been slapped with the flat of that wooden sword of hers).

The black haired woman smiles at Meg. While it doesn't reach her eyes and unsettles more than it reassures, Meg thinks she sees some sympathy in the older woman's gaze. Either that or amusement, she supposes, gaze shifting to meet Takane's.

"This here's Jo," states Takane, gesturing to the silent girl standing to the side. She peaks out from behind the fur of her coat and her own messy bangs; Meg almost jumps when she sees that Jo's eyes are a startling red. Either way, she can't help but stare until Jo's eyes flutter closed, a small grunt her only greeting. "She'll be starting here today, but since she's a rather special case she's probably gonna need some help." Takane winks at Meg like they both have a secret no one else knows. Meg gives her only a blank stare in return. "After all, Meg, you'd know how hard it is for a kid to come into school off the street, right?"

 _That_ surprises Meg, but she wonders if it should. Jo's strange, no doubt about it, and there's plenty of strange folk living on the streets, but she doesn't look like the kind of person you'd find rooting around a dumpster. Shirley and the others had been jumpy when they first went to school, wondering when the faculty would wise up and throw them out, not unlike the many angry landowners they'd encountered in their travels across the city. Meg herself had been more than a little paranoid in her first year, too. Jo, on the other hand, looks like she's almost falling asleep.

Suddenly, she remembers that Takane has asked her a question, and manages to sputter out a response before the policewoman starts to look annoyed. "Y-yeah, sure, I guess I would." Takane scoffs; Meg starts.

"You 'guess'? You kids could barely read when you got sent to school. That girl, Shirley, is the reason Sam used to doze off so often in the middle of paperwork. She's quiet, but she'd be keepin' him up so he could teach her." Takane shakes her head before turning to the woman with black hair again. "Anyways, Sei, I was thinking Meg here could get Jo in the swing of things, show her the ropes and whatnot. You think it's a good plan?"

Sei turns to Meg, looks her up and down very deliberately, tilting her chin up just slightly in mock thought for a few moments before nodding. "I'm sure Jo can use the help, sure. She's not going in with _no_ experience in academics, but she certainly isn't going in with _enough_." She gives Meg another one of those unsettling smiles. "Take care of her, Meg."

"S-sure," stammers Meg, mentally kicking herself when she realizes she's just agreed to take care of yet another ex-bum, as if helping Shirley, Charlie, and Dorothy wasn't enough. "Whatever you say, ma'am."

Sei lets out what might be a genuine laugh at that, glancing pointedly at Takane. "Good to see _someone_ has some idea of respect in this city. I was worried that everyone was as rude as officer Katsu." She draws her coat tighter around her, dark leather protecting her from the late-autumn wind. "Anyhow, if that's all you need for this, I'll be going. Call me if Jo causes any trouble, not that she _will_." The only indication that Jo hears that is a sharp burst of fog leaving the collar of her jacket, but otherwise she stays silent.

Takane seems tickled by the standoffish girl, chuckling at her behavior. "She's just a bundle of sunshine, huh?" she jokes as she puts on her helmet. "You better show her to her first class, Meg! I'm countin' on you!" she yells and, having successfully given Meg more responsibility than she'd ever signed up for, speeds away, leaving the two teenagers alone in a nearly tangible silence. Thankfully, it doesn't last long, cut short by the shrill ringing of the school bell.

Looks like they're both going to be late.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry the first chapter's so short. Doubly sorry that the next update won't really be a chapter so much as a heads up as to the differences between the original story and this remake.**


	2. Chapter 2

Lucky for both of them, the teacher doesn't mind.

In all honesty, this is everyone's blow-off class in the building. Really, it's basically a study period, mostly there for kids who might need extra help in some classes. That explains why both Meg and Jo have it, given their circumstances, though it won't do Jo much good until she's actually _been_ to her classes.

The teacher, an exceedingly nervous (albeit friendly) man, had simply waved off their absence when the pair had walked in, stammering something about not having taken attendance yet. "I won't… penalize a new student, anyways, and I'm glad you're showing her around, Meg," he'd rushed as his eyes flicked about the room, marking down those present. "Have a seat."

It's not an especially crowded class, though most of the students are grouped together, working quietly in their own groups, tables pushed together for easier collaboration, swapping notes quietly, pencils moving dutifully across paper. Meg never joins these groups; it's nothing personal, but when it comes to school she tends to work better alone. In fact, she actively prefers it; though the kids in this class are nice, her reception into the school hadn't been without it's issues. Kids can be cruel, as they say, especially to someone who floats into a highschool classroom without so much as knowing how to read.

She's a bit surprised when Jo walks past her, but the other girl skirts around the cluster of desks and goes to an open one by the window in the back corner, opposite of the door. A few of the students look up, momentarily, but they're transfixed on their work. If they notice how bizarre Jo looks in such a mundane setting as a classroom, they don't comment, though they do glance at each other for a moment, eyes brimming with curiosity.

Meg herself goes to the desk in front of Jo, only a few seats behind where she usually situates herself for this class. It's brighter outside, now, though not by much. For whatever reason, the teacher hasn't turned on the lights, so the only thing illuminating the many students is the soft white light filtering in through the windows. Jo almost looks ethereal, her light hair seeming to glow.

Meg turns around in her chair to face her.

Jo regards her with a look she can only really call unimpressed, and Meg would be lying if she said it wasn't just a bit off-putting. The other girl hadn't said one word to her since they'd been introduced, and for whatever reason seems to be actively giving Meg the cold shoulder. Whatever her grudge is, though, she seems to know that she needs Meg's help if she wants to properly navigate the maze that is the education system, so she probably won't just ditch her to stumble through the hallways on her own.

"So, I don't know if I can begin giving you help with any of your classes, since you haven't gone to any of them yet, but I can at least make sure you know where you're going. Can you take out your schedule for me?" Meg asks, leaning over the back of her chair.

She manages two seconds of uncomfortable eye contact with Jo before the silent girl reaches into one of the many pockets of her jacket and pulls out a neatly folded piece of paper. She opens it up quickly, deft hands smoothing out creases in the worn material. She's clearly looked at this many times, and given the state of the paper Meg wouldn't be surprised if she's memorized it by now. Maybe she's not quite as apathetic as she seems about the whole thing.

She only remembers what she's supposed to be doing when Jo slides the paper towards her, fingers drumming on the desk somewhat impatiently as she shifts in her seat. Meg rushes to pull out a paper, drawing a rather simple map of the school as she looks over the classes on Jo's schedule.

"They probably handed you one of those official school maps, but those things can get pretty overwhelming and hard to read, so it's best if you use this," she explains as she adds more rooms to the map. "I'll put the period number next to the room number to help you out. Do you want me to write some good routes for you? Some of these hallways can be pretty crowded."

The suggestion seems to surprise Jo. Maybe. The girl's stoic as hell, so Meg wouldn't know. "No thanks," she murmurs, watching Meg's handiwork with an uncharacteristically focused stare. "I can handle crowds."

It's the first time Meg's heard her voice, and she almost messes up the map from the shock. Jo's voice is surprisingly pleasant given her standoffish demeanor, and Meg smiles at her despite herself. If Jo notices, she shows no signs of doing so, staring down at her schedule and fiddling with the edges of the paper. It's then that Meg notices she doesn't exactly have much else on her person besides her schedule.

"So, um, I realize you're new and all, but aren't you going to need books?" It comes out sounding meaner than she wants it to, and she's about to resolve to never speak again when Jo answers her. Apparently, the mocking tone she'd unintentionally taken on had gone over the girls head completely, or at the very least wasn't as obvious as Meg had thought it to be.

"I have this," she says, producing a beaten black notebook from one of her ridiculously oversized pockets, and after a moment she pulls out a pencil, too, the eraser worn out almost completely. "It's fine for now."

"Can I see?" Meg asks, gesturing to the notebook. Jo offers a noncommittal shrug that Meg decides to interpret as a definite _yes_ , and pulls the weathered book closer to her.

She's surprised that it's not completely empty, though given it's condition she probably should've realized it's been used before. The first few pages are covered with rather sloppy renditions of the alphabet, a few basic words thrown in the mix from time to time, handwriting getting less awkward as the letters become more familiar. As Meg flips through, she sees more; whoever taught Jo before putting her here made sure she knew some essential basics, something Meg herself would have loved to have.

"She wasn't kidding when she said you have some experience with stuff, huh?" Meg inquires as she flips past pages of basic arithmetic, recognizing things she herself had learned not horribly long ago.

"No. She doesn't really have the sense of humor to joke about things." Meg laughs a bit at that, remembering the serious air about the older woman she'd seen earlier.

As she turns each page, she gets into more complex stuff, the sorts of things she'd had trouble learning as fast as the school had demanded. Algebra certainly hadn't been her best subject, she thought with a wince, though Jo didn't seem to have much trouble there. Jo _had_ , however, struggled with grammar, if the amount of corrections on the paper was any indication. Here, the copious corrections were written in deep blue, beautiful scrawling script a far cry from Jo's own blockish, messy writing.

Similar corrections could be found elsewhere, though clearly from a different author. Whoever this other person was, they were certainly enthusiastic about the whole thing, especially when it came to Jo's notes on math and science. They made themselves known through sparkling pink script scrawled along the margins, a sort of neat, looping handwriting. As it turns out, most of their notes were letters of encouragement more than corrections, with occasional smiling drawings thrown in for good measure.

 _You're doing fine in algebra and all, but hurry up and get to calculus! You can skip geometry; it's not that important!_ Meg chuckles reading that one, sliding the notebook back to Jo. She accepts it with a nod, depositing it back into her pocket before leaning back in her chair.

"Looks like you had some decent teachers before this," Meg comments. "Though I'm not sure the faculty would appreciate it if you skipped geometry given that it's a required course and all."

Jo sighs, but Meg doesn't think she's actually upset. "The faculty wouldn't agree with a lot of things that girl does." For a second, Jo almost looks like she's going to smile, but the moment is gone almost as soon as it came. Before Meg can ask her to elaborate, the bell rings, the sharp, shrill noise cutting into her thoughts.

"Oh, damn. Um, here's your map," she says, sliding the paper over to Jo. She looks it over quickly, nodding as she figures out where to go before folding it up just like her schedule. "I'll see if I can find you at your last class and see if you have any questions, alright?"

"Sure." Jo moves past her while she gets her bag, but hovers there for a moment before glancing back, meeting Meg's eyes. "Thanks."

And even though it's more than likely just Jo remembering what few manners she was taught, Meg can't help but smile.


	3. Chapter 3

Her classes go by slowly.

Once she got into the swing of things, school became much less exhausting in the sense that she was no longer falling behind in every class and rushing to catch up to everyone else. Unfortunately, adjusting to school made her see it for what it really was all along: incredibly boring.

Most of her classes consist of her teacher droning while half the class falls asleep, though she has the decency to at least look like she's taking notes. Mostly, she does; after all, she knows how awful it feels to behind and she's not looking to repeat the experience. Some classes aren't as bad, she concedes. Some teachers are the type who actually teach because they're passionate about it, and none of her electives have ever been particularly terrible.

Her classes have put her asleep so effectively that she doesn't notice Jo in her gym class until the other girl passes her while running laps. To be fair, it's the first time she's seen Jo without her jacket and scarf, and even while she's running circles around everyone else she still manages a sort of languid air about her, the same apathy from before.

When Jo comes around again, Meg decides to get a good look at her. She hadn't realized how much of Jo's form had been obscured by the large, red jacket, and it's easier to see her face with the wind pushing her bangs out of her eyes. She looks strong, Meg notes, watching the muscles move in her arms and legs as she passes by. In fact, in terms of muscles, she's probably one of the strongest people Meg has seen, which comes as a surprise. She'd thought that Jo would be scrawnier, somehow, like many of the other kids that were out on the street.

Her gaze is drawn to the bandages wrapped around one of Jo's arms, gauze covering everything from her shoulder to her wrist. Before she can think about it too much, Jo starts slowing down so that she's running next to her.

It surprises her that Jo even noticed her, much less decided to run with her, but Jo acts as though it were completely natural, stepping in sync with her as she continues along the track. The taciturn girl greets her with a nod, moving a hand up to flick the bangs away from her face as she jogs.

Jo's gaze seems completely focused on the path in front of her, so Meg decides to take advantage of her proximity, studying her face. Jo's face is surprisingly kind of childish, almost cherubic if she's feeling poetic about it, though something about her expression makes her seem older. Either way, Meg notes, she's actually pretty cute, even with those unsettling red eyes of hers.

Looking closer, she notices the faint imperfections in her dark skin, small scars scattered about her face and a few more impressive ones along her arms and legs. They look like they were serious, once, far more grave than the countless scraped knees and unfortunate cuts that had constantly plagued Meg and the others. Looking at the scars decorating Jo's skin, she knows no wayward piece of glass could have caused any of that.

"Something wrong?" Jo asks, and Meg swears her soul almost leaves her body from the shock, not having expected Jo to notice her staring. Now it's Jo that's staring at her, gaze unwavering as she meets Meg's eyes.

"No, not at all," rushes Meg, and Jo turns her attention back to the track. "Why do you ask?"

For a second, Jo's eyes flick back towards her again, and she pauses a bit, as though considering something. "You slowed down," she states, and Meg feels herself blush a bit, knowing she'd gotten distracted by the other girl. She's almost certain Jo knows too, though if she went out of her way to not mention it then she might be nicer than Meg originally thought.

Maybe.

"I got tired," she says, and then realizes it's not entirely untrue. She never had the best endurance, and civilized life hasn't given her half as many reasons to run as life on the streets had, so her stamina can't match up to Jo's. It must show in her voice, because Jo nods, slows her pace just a bit more to give the other girl some time to breathe.

The silence this time is more along the lines of companionable than awkward. Meg is grateful.

* * *

She doesn't see Jo again until after school.

She finds her by accident on her way back down from her locker when she passes the math wing, surprised to see the girl having a conversation with a teacher in the hallway. She bites her lip nervously; if Jo's in trouble on the first day of school, that's bad news for her. After all, Takane's got her eye on this new girl, and there's no way she'll be happy if Jo's getting in trouble this early on in her school life.

When Meg gets closer, though, she doesn't hear the normal scolding tones she hears from most teachers when they're lecturing a student. In fact, the teacher - a man she recognizes as one of the math teachers in the school - seems to be almost happy as he speaks. He's animated, gesturing while he talks, and Jo surprises Meg further because she actually seems to be listening, her red eyes sharp and focused while he prattles on.

Meg stops a few feet away, not sure if she should intrude, but Jo's eyes flash towards her the second she brings herself to a halt. The teacher stops when Jo's focus shifts, and he turns to Meg as well.

"Ah, Meg, right? You need something?"

This is Mr. Jinno, she realizes belatedly. She remembers going to his classroom in her first year a lot; after all, he offered some pretty great tutoring for any students who were struggling. She shouldn't be surprised to find Jo here; the other girl is new after all.

"I was actually just trying to check up on Jo," Meg confesses, now a bit sheepish. Her eyes flit between Jo and the teacher. "Sorry if I interrupted something." The end of her sentence lilts, makes it sound more like a question than a statement, but Mr. Jinno shakes his head, waving his hands as though trying to physically dismiss her worries.

"Not at all, no, I was just trying to talk to Jo about the class. Girl's got some serious potential, you know?" Meg nods, remembering Jo's work in her notebook. "Of course, I gotta say, it's a pretty one-sided conversation. You don't talk much, huh?"

Jo half-shrugs. "Not everyone has to prattle on like you, Leo." She uses his first name casually, but not with an air of familiarity. It's a pointed lack of respect, but said so apathetically it can hardly be seen as a direct affront to the teacher's authority. Still, it makes Mr. Jinno's smile falter just a bit.

"Alright, fair enough. How about this; I'll try to keep my word count to a minimum, and you call me Mr. Jinno like every other student in the building?" His tone is only half joking, and he seems to hope to get something at least resembling respect from this girl.

"I'll think about it." Jo turns to Meg while Mr. Jinno deflates. "I think I'm done here," she notes, and walks away from Mr. Jinno while the older man mumbles a goodbye and slips back into his classroom. As she moves, she gestures for Meg to follow her. The redhead complies without a second thought.

"So, how'd your first day go? Do you have any questions?" she asks as they make their way to the entrance. She doesn't think to question how Jo can weave through the often convoluted hallways of the building to the exit without so much as a glance at her map; at this point, it seems like expecting the unexpected from Jo is the way to go.

"Maybe just one." Meg looks at her expectantly, and Jo sighs so deeply that Meg winces in sympathy. "Are classes always this long?"

She hadn't seen that coming. She finds herself laughing, having to stop in the hallway to do so, nearly doubling over. Jo frowns, but Meg doesn't think she's mad. In fact, she looks more disappointed than anything else. Meg does her best to reign in her laughter, gesturing for Jo to wait for her to catch her breath.

"Sorry, sorry, I was just kind of expecting a… real question."

"That was a real question."

"Well, I mean, sure, it's a question I ask myself almost every day." Meg giggles, shaking her head. "Sorry to tell you, though, but yeah, classes are always this long. I know they can kinda drag a bit."

"Well…" Jo seems to think a bit, as though analysing her current situation. After a few seconds, she seems to come to a conclusion. "That sucks."

* * *

 **A/N: Hey, sorry for not updating sooner. In case anyone forgot, Leo Jinno is actually a character; I don't know if I mentioned it, but I'm trying to stay as far away from OCs as possible.**

 **See you all next time!**


	4. Chapter 4

She finds herself hanging around Jo a lot more than she thought she would.

It's a mystery to her just like it's a mystery to everyone else. After all, it's not like their demeanors match up all that well; sure, Meg didn't always go out of her way to talk to a lot of the other students, but she definitely had a sort of welcoming air about her, not entirely closed off like Jo. Meg didn't look half as dangerous, either; on bad days, Jo looked more like she'd been brought in from prison rather than saved from life on the streets.

Still, against all odds, Meg thinks Jo's company is pleasant. While it's true that she doesn't talk much, that's not necessarily a bad thing; in fact, sometimes it's a huge relief to Meg. Jo doesn't expect anyone to fill a silence with small talk, and only talks when she has something she wants to say. She's taciturn, but not hostile; unfortunately, many people in the school can't seem to differentiate between the two traits. As a result, few other people attempt to speak to the girl.

Jo ends up wedging herself into Meg's daily routine, intentionally or not. They sit together in their first class and later run alongside each other in gym, and by some strange twist of fate they always end up walking out the school doors together at the end of the day. Occasionally, Meg slips away from her usual lunch table (which consists of a handful of other students) and finds Jo sitting in some isolated spot eating something that undoubtedly has too much hot sauce on it.

Today Meg finds Jo in one of the more remote stairwells in the building sitting on a windowsill. The girl acknowledges her with a nod, eyes still scanning her phone screen intently as Meg approaches.

Jo seems far more immersed in whatever she's doing than she ever is in her work, Meg notes without a hint of surprise. Still, there's something off about her, and so Meg watches, wondering what it could be. Such dismissive greetings from Jo are natural, even expected, but there's a coldness to her today, not to mention a strange lack of focus. Or, rather, all of her focus seems devoted to something else.

Jo's eyebrows are furrowed, and she's painstakingly tapping at her phone. Something tells Meg that her frustration isn't entirely due to whatever difficulties she's having with the touch screen keyboard, because she's seen Jo struggle with words on paper and she hadn't looked half as disgruntled as she did now. In fact, with a start Meg realizes that Jo looks damn near unapproachable when she's this upset, and a small part of her wonders why she came up to the girl in the first place.

A sudden chill shakes her from her thoughts. Throughout most of the building, the heating is usually enough to keep the outside cold at bay, but in this far-flung part of the school, with only a thin pane of glass separating her and Jo from the harsh winter wind. Meg draws her sweater tighter, and with a start notices that Jo's own jacket has been tossed aside.

"Shoot, Jo, aren't you cold?"she asks, and Jo actually seems surprised for a second, her eyes widening. Jo seems to notice her discarded jacket for the first time, and she shrugs.

"No. It's not cold." She says it in such a matter-of-fact tone that Meg almost gets tricked into believing her despite all the evidence to the contrary. She carefully puts her hand to the glass that Jo seems so comfortable leaning against and recoils almost instantly. It's like touching ice.

"In that case, you either have crazy body heat or a fever. Are you feeling alright?" Jo's eyes are back on her screen again, and the only answer she gives Meg's question is a nod. Meg decides to keep talking, anyways. "At least someone's warm in this building. There're people in my classes who literally never take off their jackets."

Jo pauses whatever she's doing on her phone, gaze flitting to her own fur-lined jacket on the windowsill beside her. "Meg, are you cold?" she asks, raising an eyebrow, as though it hadn't occurred to her before.

Meg laughs. "Of course I'm cold. It's mid-winter and… Let's just say the heating in the school leaves a lot to be desired. It's not hard to deal with, though." She doesn't want Jo thinking she can't handle the cold, not when she's lived in this city for so long. For all the benefits of city life, winters could still be incredibly bitter, and though Meg complains with each winter that passes her by she's long since realized there's nothing she can do to change it.

She's surprised when Jo hands her the worn leather jacket, and she instinctively tries to decline the offer. She stops mid-objection when she meets the other girl's eyes, seeing a sort of stubbornness there that she doesn't have the will to fight. She takes the jacket with a quiet thank you and a blush that has no right to be there.

The faux fur lining in the jacket is incredibly warm, and the leather keeps the cold out well. Even though Meg has only wrapped it around her shoulders, she's already much warmer than she was just moment ago, though she's not sure how much of that she can chalk up to her embarrassment at the gesture.

Jo turns her gaze back to her phone, but she looks just a bit more relaxed now, the crease between her brows now gone. She does seem tired, Meg thinks, but given that she always looks sleepy anyways it's hard for her to tell.

There's a hundred questions she's wanted to ask Jo since she met her, and the list has only grown longer since they'd started hanging out. Everyone knew the girl was mysterious, but Meg didn't want to unravel any secrets Jo was trying to keep. As a matter of fact, most of the questions she had about the girl nowadays were simple things compared to what she heard her classmates whisper in the hallways.

What did she do outside of school? Was she getting enough sleep? Did the workload bother her? Did she like any of her classes? Jo seemed to keep everything hidden, not just whatever happened to her on the streets. She seemed to rarely betray any emotion or personal preference; if she was bored in one class, the same could be said of all the others. No matter how ladden her bag was with work on a given night, she always looked just as tired the next day as she did every other waking moment. Almost every time Meg saw her, she'd seemed completely unaffected by everything around her.

"Jo?"

She doesn't mean to call out to her, and her voice comes out softer than usual. Jo's eyes flash back to her instantly, giving Meg her full attention. She wonders if it's this easy for the teachers in the building to get her to listen. She wonders whether or not she's a special case.

"Sorry, I've just been wondering…" She trails off, but if Jo is annoyed with her behavior she doesn't show it. Instead, she fumbles with her phone a bit before locking the screen and nodding for Meg to go on. "What's your favorite class?"

She feels like an idiot, and for a few seconds Jo just stares at her. There's confusion in Jo's eyes, and Meg doesn't blame her. Her confused expression quickly becomes pensive, as though she herself isn't sure of the answer.

"Math, I guess," she says with a shrug. Meg doesn't react; she's honestly a bit shocked that Jo answered in the first place. Jo takes her lack of response as a sign to keep talking. "Leo's not bad and it's easier than writing."

"Oh, right," Meg has to remind herself that replying is something people do in conversations. "Yeah, a lot of people like Mr. Jinno. Not a lot of people call him by his first name, though."

"I'm not a lot of people." Jo's smile is so small that Meg almost misses it. "But I'm sure most of the school understands that by now, right?"

Meg winces. "You've heard rumors, huh? Word of advice: just ignore them. Rumors happen whenever someone new comes in." There were definitely more rumors about Jo than there had been about anyone else, though Meg decides not to mention that.

"So you got them, too." It's not a question; Jo knows it's true. Still, Meg nods anyways to confirm it. There'd been some rumors about Meg, especially since it was no secret she'd been taken in off the streets. When it came down to it, though, the students found that there weren't many differences between Meg and them, and so she was accepted fairly easily. Aside from her past, she seemed to be a completely normal girl.

Jo's a different case.

"Lunch is almost over," Jo notes, sliding off the windowsill with ease. Meg stares at her for a second. Jo's tall and strong and doesn't look like a highschooler at all, but Meg's glad she's here. "If you're still cold, you can hold onto the jacket. I'll get it later."

"Thanks," Meg says, but Jo is already heading to her next class, taking the stairs on two at a time. She pulls the jacket a little closer around her before heading to her next class. Jo may be different, and she might not be the easiest person to talk to, but she's definitely not as bad as anyone thinks she is.

* * *

 **A/N: Yeah, I realize things are going slowly. But hey, that's the nature of the first few chapters, right?**

 **See you guys next time.**


	5. Chapter 5

She's gone from way too warm to miserably cold.

Sei watches her from the doorway, concern evident in her expression. The room is stuffy; the heater's on at full blast and the door had been closed for a while. Jo sits watching one of her horror movies on the couch. She seems annoyed, glowering at the screen as she draws her thick blanket tighter around herself, sinking into the ratty couch she insists on keeping.

"Need something?" she asks when she can get the words out past her chattering teeth, irritation evident in her tone. She's not mad at Sei, and both of them know that; right now, she's just mad in general.

"You know we have to take a look at it," Sei says, and Jo sighs. Her breath comes out ragged. She hates it.

"Yeah, alright." Jo stands and walks over, pausing at the doorway. The air from the hallway is much cooler than her room, and she has to brace herself before leaving her room, blinking as her eyes adjust to the light. Sei puts one hand on her shoulder, guiding her to the living room where Amy waits.

"Alright Jo, let's see what's up." Amy's beaming, and for a moment Jo wonders where the young girl gets the energy to be that happy all the time. "Come on, the sooner you do this the sooner you get to go back to your nice, warm room."

Jo grunts at that, but manages to bring her left arm out from under the protection of the blanket, ripping away the wrappings. There's a sensation of relief that always comes with uncovering her arm after having it covered for days. Covering the marks every day was annoying, but it would be much more annoying to have people asking questions about it. After all, Jo stuck out enough without people seeing it, and having them ask questions about it's origins would be troublesome. Or at least, far more troublesome than people wondering what was under the wrappings.

"At least it's consistent," Amy mutters as she holds a hand close to the markings. "Whenever you feel this cold, it's always super warm. Does it hurt?" It sure looked like it hurt to the younger girl, the skin around the dark markings having turned red.

"No more than usual," says Jo, glowering at the markings on her arm. They were annoying, and nowadays seemed more inconvenient than useful. None of them could understand how they worked, and it bothered Jo that she didn't know anything about them despite having had them for years.

It wasn't terribly unusual for the markings to cause these temperature changes in Jo. Some days they would make her feverish, and others they would just outright give her hypothermia. These days they seemed to have little use beyond making her sick and giving her a constant stinging sensation throughout her whole left arm.

School had been manageable when she'd felt feverish, since as Meg had mentioned the heating in the building wasn't too good, but going like this would be miserable. She'd tried to do assignments earlier, but to no avail; her hands had been shaking the whole time, and it made it difficult to write anything down. For all her strength, she could barely hold a pencil when she was like this.

"Alright, Jo, you're free to go," states Amy after some time. Jo stands up, drawing the blanket tight around herself, and turns to walk back to her room without a word. Amy doesn't really expect anything different; Jo's rarely in a good mood when it comes to this sort of thing, after all.

Jo shuts the door behind her and tries her best to fall asleep, horror movie playing at full blast all the while.

* * *

Sei vaguely remembers the girl who stands before her when she opens the door.

Judging from the startled look Meg gives her, she remembers her, too. Sei's perfectly aware that she's intimidating; it's a look she's cultivated because it's usually helpful, in her line of work. Of course, if she doesn't want a highschooler passing out on her doorstep, she'll have to do without it.

She smiles reassuringly at Meg, opening the door a little wider. Takane had seemed to trust this girl, and though Sei was not without objections to many aspects of Takane's personality, she knows that the other woman has a keen sense for people. She wouldn't have had Meg look out for Jo if she didn't trust her to do a good job.

"You're Meg, right?" The girl in question nods, worrying at the strap of her bag. "Is there something you need?"

Meg prepares herself before speaking because the less sensible part of her mind is convinced that this woman will strike her down if she stutters. "The teachers sent me with Jo's work for today." She gestures to the stack of papers she's holding. It's not too much work, but it always looks more cumbersome than it is.

Sei frowns at the stack, reminded all too much of all the menial paperwork she'd been forced to do in her life. "Right, of course. Well, I suppose I can just-" She's about to accept the papers when she hears a door open behind her. It can't be Amy; the girl doesn't tend to leave her "office" until it's time to eat. Sei turns to face the newcomer. "Actually, Jo can get this herself."

"What can I do?" Meg tries to peer around Sei, the familiar voice momentarily making her forget her fear of the older woman. She only manages to make out the corner of an incredibly substantial blanket.

"I think you'll have to meet her halfway with this one," Sei says in an aside to Meg, moving aside to let her in. Meg starts, whispering an apology as she steps into the building, Sei closing the door behind her.

It's much warmer in the building than it is outside, Meg notes, loosening her scarf as she wipes her feet on the doormat. In fact, it's a pretty nice place; definitely a newer building, with a sense of order about it that she assumes is largely Sei's doing.

Jo's standing with her back to Meg in what must be their kitchen, pouring copious amounts of hot chocolate mix into a cup of heated water. Her hair's sticking out in so many directions it looks almost cartoonish, and even though she's so tall and built the blanket she has draped over her shoulders dwarfs her.

"Feeling any better?" Sei asks, discreetly pulling Jo's holster off of it's place on the wall while Meg's distracted. It's times like these she's grateful for Jo's uncanny ability to draw attention to herself.

"No." Jo mixes her drink, still not bothering to turn around. "Who's our guest?"

"Excellent question." Sei directs a pointed look at Meg as though urging her to speak up.

"I'm Meg," Meg says to her before her gaze flits back to Jo. "Hi, Jo."

Now Jo turns her head to look, and Meg catches sight of tired, bloodshot eyes through her unruly bangs. She looks miserable, but Meg's intensely relieved to find she's not mad. At least, not mad at _her._ "Right, Hi. Something wrong?"

"What?" The question confuses Meg, and Sei lets out a dry chuckle. Usually, people who come to see Jo do so with some sort of mission in mind; no one comes in to see Jo if they don't need help. It's no wonder she's not used to someone visiting her when she's "sick".

"Sorry. Not... thinking right yet," Jo shakes her head as though trying to clear it. "What is it?"

"I just have some work that the teachers wanted me to give you." She studies Jo for a moment. "You've definitely had better days. Looks like I was right about you having a fever yesterday, huh?"

At that, Sei almost bursts out laughing. Jo notices the amused expression on her face and levels a glare in her direction before letting out an exasperated sigh. "Yeah. Sei here said it wasn't _serious_ enough to warrant not going. You can leave the papers on the table right there." She picks up her drink with her right hand, gesturing to the table in question with her left.

When she moves her arm out from under the protective cover of the blanket, Meg notices that it's devoid of it's usual wrappings.

She's noticed scars on Jo before, but they don't really compare to what she's seeing now. Her eyes widen when she sees the dark, angry markings on Jo's bare arm. The scars had looked bad, too, but these markings looked more like brands than anything else, etched deep into Jo's dark skin. She freezes in place, thoughts racing, wondering what caused the markings, wondering why-

Sei's hand on her shoulder jolts her from her thoughts, and in the next moment Jo's arm is under the blanket again. "It was nice of you to do this, but you should probably be going. We're not exactly ready to receive any guests, and I'm sure you have your fair share of work as well." Sei smiles but it's colder than usual, looks almost forced. "Best start on it now rather than later."

"Of course." Meg's reply is somewhat breathless, but she moves (albeit stiffly) to put the papers on the table. Jo looks back at the pile when she's done and frowns at its height before grunting her thanks, retreating back down the hallway to a place Meg can only assume is her room.

She finds herself on her way home with more questions about Jo than she ever had before and absolutely no answers to speak of.


	6. Chapter 6

She's never been quite so grateful for how fearful most of her classmates are.

It's likely the only reason she manages to have a relatively peaceful school day, all things considered. Were she any less intimidating, she'd likely be swamped with questions for all of her first week, forced to indulge the students in their strange fascination with new people. Coming back after a few days of being out of class would have brought on a new slew of questions, questions that she would have had to deal with on only one hour of sleep, having stayed up most of the night doing work she couldn't do before.

Fortunately, her absence doesn't bring forth any sort of interrogation. Judging by the looks sent her way as she walks through the narrow halls, however, her being gone has definitely started a whole new slew of rumors.

She walks into her first class and even the group of students so dutifully huddled in the largest table take a second to stare at her. She hears the wave of whispers that follows her entrance and scowls, moving to take her seat. Dealing with that had been much easier when she was relatively well-rested, and she resists the urge to snap at them only because it'd probably scare them all to death if she did.

She slides into her seat behind Meg, and the other girl turns around with a small smile. Jo returns an empty stare; how the other girl is so undeterred by her demeanor is lost to her, but the expression is so sincere that she can't really get mad. Most of the student treats her like she's about to cut their collective heads off; being greeted like a normal human being is definitely preferable, if not still strange.

"Welcome back, Jo," says Meg, adjusting her position in her chair so that it's easier to talk to her. "You feeling better?"

"Wouldn't be here if I wasn't," Jo replies, and a quick glance to the group in the middle of the room sends them back to work, quieting their whispers with ease. "Thanks, though."

Meg notices the glance and frowns. Clearly she sympathizes. "Everyone's curious about you. It's kind of crazy," she observes, fiddling with her hands while she talks. "I'm honestly surprised hardly anyone's asked me questions, considering I'm, well…"

Jo sighs. "One of the only people who talks to me, right?" She leans back in her chair, staring at the ceiling with a bored expression. "Good to hear no one's bugged you about it, I guess."

"Jo…" Meg trails off before continuing, voice quieter. Jo looks back to her, leans forward a bit to hear better. "Doesn't it bother you? The way they treat you, I mean. They're not awful to you, but they could be… a lot better." Meg looks over at the group in the center of the room and Jo follows her gaze. She makes eye contact with the one kid who had been staring unabashedly. He couldn't look away faster.

"It's not unusual," says Jo. People didn't exactly want to talk to her outside of the school, anyways, albeit for different reasons. Meg looks sad but in an understanding way, and Jo remembers that she was an outsider before Jo was even here, and it's a relief to remember that Meg's sympathy is real. "Don't worry about it."

"It's just…" Meg seems upset, bothered by something, but she can't put it into words. The students weren't _mean_ , just incredibly distant, and being mad at them seemed pointless when they weren't really doing any harm. Still, something about it makes her angry, because it wasn't her fault she lived on the streets and it wasn't Jo's fault that she did… whatever it was she did that gave her all those scars.

But she can't say that, because that's when the alarm starts.

She recognizes the sound from the drills the school has had all of them do every year she's been here, but her heart starts to races when she sees the teacher's face, the surprise in his eyes, because if he's surprised then that means it isn't a drill this time.

Her mind races as she tries to figure out which one it is. It's not fire, not the same sound as the shrill alarm she's familiar with, and one glance outside tells her it's not related to tornadoes or anything like that so that means it must be-

"E-everyone hide!" The teacher stammers out, standing up abruptly. "It's a lockdown!"

Vaguely Meg can make out the widespread panic spreading throughout the school through the sounds coming from other classrooms, chairs scraping along the floorboards and desks being rearranged as everyone complies. It's a flurry of motion, students hurriedly crouching under anything that might hide them from a threat as the teacher, despite his shaking, checks the hallways and turns off the lights. It takes a minute at most but feels longer, and at the end of it everything is deathly quiet.

And Jo is still exactly where she was when it began.

Meg gestures for her to come over, to hide with the rest of them, because it's not as though Jo needs any more scars than she already has, but Jo's not looking at her. No, Jo's not looking at any of them. Instead, Jo's looking at the door, red eyes staring out angrily from under her messy bangs, her expression so calm it's almost jarring.

"Ms. Carpenter," the teacher stammers out from his place under one of the tables. "Please just-"

Jo holds up a hand and the poor man shuts his mouth instantly because even though he's the one with authority she's the one who's really acting like she's in charge, what with how level headed she is. In her hand she's holding Meg's English book, a small but dense textbook with a hard cover. Meg's brow furrows.

There's gunfire. Close. Everyone in the room stiffens.

"Ms. Carpenter, _please_ -"

"Shut up," Jo says, and they hear footsteps in the hallway, getting closer. They stop outside the door and Jo's eyes narrow into slits, nearly knocking her chair back as she stands up, book still held tightly in her hand.

The door opens.

* * *

In a way, Jo recognizes the man who walks in.

She knows exactly who he works for the second she sees him, eyeing the insignia on his shoulder with anger. He's not too high ranking, she knows, because she's never seen him before and he probably has no idea she exists. Still, he has the stone-faced look of someone who's been doing this for a while.

"Not hiding. That's good. Too cool to cower with your peers, huh?" He gestures with his gun to the group hiding in the corner and some of them look close to fainting. "I've been looking for a kid like you."

 _So there's only one of them._

"How about you come with me, kid? Make your risk worth it and walk out of this alive." He turns towards the door, ready to leave with her in tow, because he's a goon with a gun and he's used to people doing what he wants when he makes them. Jo's seen people talk like he does a lot, but she's never seen anyone try to talk to _her_ like that.

"No," she says, voice unwavering. He turns back with shock that he somehow manages to mask as anger, pointing his gun directly at her, aiming for her head. She hears a muted gasp from the corner of the room. Her face betrays no emotion as he walks just a bit farther into the classroom.

"It wasn't an option, kid."

"It is now."

Meg's English textbook hits his face with enough force to break his nose, and his gun barely hits the ground before Jo sweeps it up. By the time he's recovered, he's staring down the barrel of his own gun, and he's so shocked that Jo almost laughs.

" _Christ_ kids these days watch too many action movies," he says as he tries to wipe the blood away from his face. He straightens and holds up his hands, taking cautious steps towards Jo, growing bolder when she doesn't make him stop. "You've got a hell of an arm, kid, but you really oughta put that down before you hurt yourself."

She can feel heat flaring up in her left arm and grits her teeth. This has to be over, and it has to be over fast, but she can't kill him. Not in front of these kids, and not with all the information he might know. Her arm shakes. He must interpret that as fear.

His attempt to disarm her is met with her sweeping his legs out from under him. After a moment's deliberation she slides the gun over to the corner, watches Meg take it without a second thought. The man is fuming, now, not used to being beaten, still thinking that she's supposed to be a normal highschooler, not understanding how she keeps beating him.

"You're gonna regret th-" She lifts him up by his shirt and it feels like her arm is on fire but there's nothing she can do about it. At least, not here. He stops talking and she can see him realize that the tables have turned. She's in control now, and he can't ignore it anymore.

This all feels very familiar. She can smell smoke from her sleeve and hisses out a curse through her teeth, wondering what to do with the disarmed intruder at her mercy. She can't do anything _too_ flashy, and she can't kill him because whether she recognizes him or not this guy _knows_ things, because they wouldn't send him to shoot up a school if they didn't have a damn good reason.

She draws her fist back, feeling heat travel through the length of her arm.

The only thing that saves this man from a whole lot of pain is a wooden sword cracking against Jo's knuckles.

"We'll take it from here, Jo," says Takane, and Jo looks over to her, fist shaking slightly in the air for a few more seconds before she lets her hand drop to her side. Jo nods, roughly shoving the man into the arms of one of Takane's officers. Takane puts a hand on her shoulder as though to calm her and waves to the students. "You all can come out now. My men're combing the building. If there's any more goons like that, we'll take care of 'em."

Jo tries her best to believe that, the heat leave her arm like a dying fire.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry, but waits might get longer now that school's starting up again. See you next time!**


	7. Chapter 7

"Now, what the hell did you think you were doing?"

Jo watches Takane as she storms back and forth in the dimly lit interrogation room while she holds ice to her arm, jacket lying in the corner of the room. Takane, upon entering this room, has gone from remarkably calm to absolutely livid, gripping her wooden sword tightly, and Jo warily watches the tip of the weapon as the officer continues to lecture her. It serves as a reminder that Takane is not, in fact, all bark and no bite; Jo had made that mistake before, and while she'd come out on top in the ensuing brawl she wasn't looking forward to repeating it.

"If you want me to be _nice_ about it, I'd say I was saving some students." Jo leans back, the cheap chair she's in groaning as her weight shifts. It's not a lie, but she's spiteful; whether it's the tone Takane's taking with her or the lingering burning sensation in her arm, she can't really say. "Really, though, I was just covering your job for you. _You're welcome_."

"Oh, you are _not_ allowed to tell anyone here they're doin' their job wrong, you hear me?" Takane looms over the table, hands slamming onto the hard surface, blocking the light from the lamp hanging above both of them. "Not after you made their jobs so difficult for so long."

"I didn't say they're doing it wrong," states Jo, meeting Takane's gaze with apathetic ease. Takane seems ruffled by the action; clearly she's used to her tantrums inspiring fear, or at the very least discomfort. "I just did it better."

"You-"

"Sorry, should I have waited for a few of those kids to get shot while waiting for you and yours to show up? Let me know how _that_ would have been better." Jo crosses her arms, eyes narrowing into slits. She's not usually the type to cut people off, but being reprimanded for doing a _good_ thing for once leaves a bad taste in her mouth. She's scowling.

"You're _undercover_!" Takane flings the wooden sword forward, too high, over Jo's head. It hits the wall behind her with a loud smack. She sinks into the chair opposite Jo, sighing deeply, slapping her hand onto the metal surface. "Do you even know what that means?"

"I'm not that dumb," says Jo, observing the woman before her. She looks incredibly tired, and dropped the wooden-sword-intimidation tactic, and despite herself Jo decides to ease up. She gently tosses the now-melted bag of ice onto the table, thinking a bit before speaking. "Look, I had two things I could do. I could do nothing, and the guy would've killed people, or I could do _something_ , and then everyone would be safe. I didn't even kill him."

"You don't even understand what you did wrong," says Takane, pushing her hair back with a sigh. "Normal people don't do _something_ , Jo. They can't. Or at least, if they _do_ end up doing something, they don't do it like you did."

Jo thinks of her classmates, cowering and under desks, shaking as they stare, and she remembers that Meg was the only one who stood still. "They won't question it, Takane. They just wanted to stay alive." She crosses her arms over her chest. "You don't usually think when you want to survive."

"We better hope you're right," mutters Takane. "After all, you stick out enough without this. Anyways…" She stands, going to collect her discarded sword. "If anyone tries to interview you or something like that, don't say anything. Try to avoid anyone taking pictures, too, alright? Those guys haven't sent anyone who knows you, but if they do it's best to be careful."

"Alright. You get anything out of the guy?"

Takane groans. "He barely knows what he's looking for, but he does know that whatever it is, you've got it. Or at least he's damn sure." She approaches the door and stops there for just a moment, pensive. "Personally, I think he just doesn't want to admit that he could get his ass handed to him by a high schooler."

"To be fair, I don't really look like one." Jo wrings her hands as she talks, staring blankly at the vaguely reflective surface of the table.

"You can pass as one well enough. Hopefully." When Jo deigns to look up, Takane's focused on her arm. There's faint smoke still rising from it, the dying embers of a fire that never really started. "How're you feeling?"

As irritating as it is to Jo that Takane's voice softens when she asks that, she decides she's been enough of an ass for the day. "Don't worry about it," she says, waving the smoke away with her other hand. "Doesn't really hurt. Just makes me smell like a chainsmoker, really." Takane laughs at that, but it sounds just a bit forced.

"You know, you're a lot better than I thought you were gonna be when we first got you in here," she comments. "Half my officers would shit their pants if they knew who you were. You've got a pretty strong reputation for a lot of them."

A frown tugs at the corner of Jo's mouth. She remembers some of the officers, sees burns on others. Something clouds her eyes for a moment, an emotion Takane can't identify. "I'm sure the other half would want to kill me, then, I think."

"Oh, not all of them." Takane says it too fast, almost, like she's thought about this before. Knowing her, she probably has. "Sam, at least, would probably just be mad that you're in the same class as his daughter."

"What?" Shit. Right. Officers had kids. Families, if nothing else. She feels something uncertain in the back of her mind, vague but bad, like a shadow hanging over her. "Oh."

"Don't worry about that though. Actually…" Takane trails off, studies the clock on the wall behind Jo. "Get out of here. I've kept you long enough." She stands and Jo follows her out the door, blinking as her eyes adjust to the bright lights in the police station, walking past the desks of people she's either scared or hurt who somehow don't know who she is.

* * *

Sei's not happy when she comes back.

She's not happy, but she's not mad, either, offering Jo a polite hello when she walks into the house, cold wind rushing in with her. She's sitting at the kitchen table looking into a steaming cup of tea but not really seeing it in front of her, deep in thought, and Jo sees Amy's pink scrawl covering the paper at her side. Jo glimpses at it but Amy's handwriting is rushed and the words run together, so she decides to stop before she gets a headache and opts to peruse the contents of the fridge instead.

"I heard about what you did," says Sei. Of course she did. Takane must have called her as soon as Jo left the building. Jo roots around. There must be leftovers of _something_. "Not as subtle as I would have liked, but at least you're not dead."

"A kid in the first classroom he got to got shot," Jo notes, tossing a box of cold pizza onto the table. "He wasn't even aiming. Just shooting up the school." She pulls out the hot sauce, taking off the cap as she slides a chair out for herself with her leg.

"He didn't even go in?"

"He didn't see anyone through the window, so no, he didn't bother." Jo opens the box and douses it in sauce, not feeling Sei's eyes on her. "He only came into my class because I wasn't hiding."

"And why weren't you hiding?" Sei seems to remember she has tea and brings the delicate cup to her lips, raising a dark eyebrow at Jo as she takes a sip. "I don't know if you remember, Jo, but you're supposed to stay as far away from them as possible. It's safer for everyone."

Jo puts down her pizza. "I don't hide," she snaps. "Besides, you know that if he kept going he would kill someone eventually. It's better this way."

Sei looks at her for a long time, looking almost like she's going to contradict Jo, but her resolve wavers. Her words die before they can even begin to be spoken, and she stares into the dark liquid in her cup as though looking for something to say. "Call it utilitarian if you like, but… What I mean to say is…" She seems lost. Jo picks up her pizza again.

"Look," she says through a mouthful of sauce, "it didn't matter to me at the time who he was, alright?" She swallows, speaking more clearly. "He had to be stopped. The teacher wasn't going to do it. Better that I did."

"It wasn't your job," says Sei, looking pained, eyebrows knit together, grip tightening on her cup.

"I thought I didn't have a job anymore," says Jo, expression neutral as she tears the crust of her pizza into pieces.

That leaves both of them silent, Sei drinking her cold tea and Jo soaking her crust in hot sauce, each of them left to their own thoughts but not really wanting to think. It feels like a long, long time before Sei talks, and her voice is uncharacteristically uncertain.

"You're right. You don't," she admits, setting the now-empty cup down. She turns to face Jo, locking eyes with her. "You don't have a job, and I sure as hell am not your boss." Curses never did sound quite right coming from Sei, Jo thinks, but keeps listening anyways, not entirely sure where she's going with this.

"I'm not in the place to be throwing orders at you anymore, but I'd like to think that at this point you'd listen to me. Not because of any obligation, but because you're not in this alone even if you'd like to think you are." She pauses a moment and watches Jo, seeing the way her jaw is clenched and the tension gathered in her shoulders, and something in her tone changes. "Maybe I shouldn't have said anything when you came in, and maybe I should just be glad that you're thinking for yourself, and maybe you got enough of a lecture from Takane and don't need me breathing down your neck, but you know there are people at stake if we get found, Jo. Remember that."

Jo thinks of the people who she just put at risk. She thinks of Amy who's a genius but can't go out to teach anyone who's not Jo because if she does she'll probably get shot or stolen away, and for a second she feels guilty for what she's done. She thinks of a few hundred faceless people who will get hurt if they fail because of her and grits her teeth. But then Jo thinks of the teachers at the school who ask her if she needs any help and the students who are so caught up in their work that they can't be bothered to look up when she enters a room and wonders if any of them deserved to die that morning. And then she thinks of Meg, standing still amongst the chaos in the classroom, and she's not really sure how she feels about any of it anymore.

So she decides to stop thinking and leaves, the last bits of her food abandoned on her plate.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry about the delay. Wanted to work on this during break, but got caught up with a bunch of other stuff.**

 **Hope the writing isn't too awkward. It's been a while since I was really into Burst Angel, so I'm not always sure I'm doing it justice.**


	8. Chapter 8

School is different the next day.

It goes without saying that everyone still leaves her alone; after all, staring a man down at gunpoint doesn't do anything to make her less intimidating. It's not the same silence today, though, the few whispers she manages to hear sounding different, now. No wary glances are cast her way, only interested stares, and she decides that this is weird.

They're still afraid of her, undoubtedly so, but they don't think she's bad. It occurs to her that most of the rumors before had likely been along the lines of her being a criminal, her having killed a man, a number of things that, given her past, were likely closer to the truth than whatever was circulating now. It's almost funny, but mostly it's just weird.

Even Meg is different today, spending all of their first class in unfamiliar silence as the two of them work. This difference is one Jo chooses to ignore, because Meg could be quiet for any number of reasons that didn't involve what had happened the other day. So instead of pressing the issue, she looks at her English notebook, brow furrowing as she tries to make sense of the letters.

One person acts completely normal.

"Hey, Jo," Mr. Jinno greets her as she enters the class, smiling widely. "Thanks for being such a big damn hero. Now sit down; pop quiz." She finds herself startled at that, because hardly anyone's spoken to her directly all day, but she moves to her seat as the class let's out a collective groan at Mr. Jinno's announcement.

He gives her the quiz last, lingering by Jo's desk for just a second. "Look, since you're new and you didn't learn a lot of this before coming here, I would usually give you extra time, but…" He grins. "Between you and me, I don't think you'll need it. If you do, though, don't be ashamed to ask."

As it turns out, Mr. Jinno's right. Jo actually manages to finish before a good amount of the class, feeling the eyes of those still working trailing after her while she goes to turn it in. Mr. Jinno is reclined in his rolling chair, looking awfully smug at having been right, pushing his glasses up knowingly. She rolls her eyes at him as she picks up the worksheet he's assigned before moving back to her desk.

Mr. Jinno, she decides, would not have deserved a bullet to the head. This thought makes her feel better despite herself.

* * *

Meg finds her at lunch.

Normally, she wouldn't be confused by that, but given Meg's silence in the morning she hadn't really expected the other girl to seek her out. She sets her food down beside her, looking at Meg expectantly, realizing too late that usually when you see someone you know you say hello instead of just waiting for them to talk.

Meg stands before her looking almost angry with the way her fists are balled up at her sides, staring at Jo with bright blue eyes. Jo feels her own expression harden in response, instinctively preparing for another lecture.

"Why didn't you hide?" Meg asks, and it's a question Jo has heard too many times. She slips off the windowsill and looms before the other girl, but Meg doesn't back down. "We _told_ you to hide like every _sane_ student was doing. You could have gotten hurt."

That's a new one. Jo feels her anger leave her, surprise taking it's place. _She_ could get hurt? It's a ridiculous idea, and one that shouldn't matter, and in that moment she realizes that Meg has no idea who she is. There's an unfamiliar feeling in her chest that she thinks must be guilt, but mostly she just feels confused. She's not sure what she was ready for, but it wasn't this.

She's really not used to people caring about her.

She wants to say something. "Oh." Wait, that's not right- Jo shakes her head, tries to think. Meg cares about her but doesn't know her. Something about that strikes her as wrong. Somehow it feels like Meg shouldn't be in the dark. "Uh... I didn't think I was going to get hurt."

"What?" Meg can barely believe her, and it shows in her eyes as she stands there, looking up at Jo. "What do you _mean_ you didn't think you were going to get hurt? He had a gun! He shot it! You could have gotten shot! Do you not realize that that's dangerous?"

Jo thinks more. There's a hundred reasons she could cite as to why it doesn't matter, why guns don't scare her, why bullets don't hurt so much when they manage to hit her anymore. Are any of them worth saying? Would it be too much to tell her? Does she deserve to know? There's too many questions. Jo decides to give Meg the simple answer. "No."

Maybe that wasn't the right thing to say. Meg seems deeply frustrated. "Okay, then, tell me why it somehow doesn't matter if you get shot, because I'm really not getting it. I'm really not able to understand how you can put yourself in danger like that." She crosses her arms, and Jo thinks for a second that she can see the beginnings of tears in her eyes. Why? "Explain to me why you thought it was completely safe while I was almost having a heart attack because I thought my friend was going to get shot."

 _Friend?_ Jo feels like a liar even though she's never told Meg anything that wasn't true. Jo looks at Meg, who shouldn't care but does, and decides that anyone who's going to be her friend should probably get to know more. "Because it was safe. Not for anyone else, but for me."

"What kind of god complex do you have?" Meg brings up one of her closed fists and bumps it against Jo's shoulder, too lightly for it to hurt but hard enough that it gets her message across. "You aren't indestructible."

"Yeah, I'm not." Jo steels herself before continuing. There's no one else in the stairwell, no one but Meg who will hear this. "But I _am_ trained."

That makes Meg quiet. She looks at Jo, every emotion on her face giving way to confusion. "Trained? Jo, you're making no sense. Takane said you were just homeless, living on the streets; why would you be trained?"

"Takane said that?" This is news to her. When had that happened?

"Yeah, when she introduced you." A small smile makes it's way onto Meg's face, likely without her permission. "Do you not remember? I thought I made more of an impression."

"My first day here, right?" Jo thinks for a second, brow furrowing. Now she remembers, but most of it is unclear- she'd been awfully tired, not adjusted to having to wake up so early. "Sorry. I was half-asleep."

Meg's quiet for a second, expression shifting, and Jo's about to ask what's wrong when Meg starts cracking up. She's laughing, Jo realizes belatedly. "Oh, man, you looked the part, too. I don't know why I thought you would remember anything before we actually started talking."

"To be fair, I'm half asleep most of the time, anyways," Jo points out. "But judging by how a lot of people act around here, I'm not the only one."

Meg chuckles at that, but then stops abruptly, shaking herself back into seriousness. "Wait, okay, but we were talking about something else. What do you mean you were trained?" There's a pause, but then she adds, quieter, "Does this have to do with all those scars you've got?"

Jo nods but then the bell rings, cutting her off before she even starts speaking. She grabs her bag. "I'll tell you, if you really want, but I don't think Sei would be thrilled if I skipped class to tell you now." Meg opens her mouth to protest, but Jo doesn't listen, sighing as she moves to step past Meg. "Can't believe _I'm_ being the good influence, right now…"

"Wait!"

Meg stops her before she leaves the stairwell with a hug of all things. Jo stiffens at first, tense, fighting instinct telling her to escape, but then she relaxes, hesitantly bringing her free hand up and awkwardly patting Meg's back.

"I forgot to say this, but I'm glad you're alright, Jo," Meg says, talking into Jo's shoulder, but the taller girl hears every word. Meg pulls away, adjusting the strap on her own bag, and offers her a sunny smile. "Don't think I won't remember that you owe me an explanation, though."

"Wasn't planning on it," says Jo, surprising herself by giving her a small smile in return. "Now come on. Let's get to class."

* * *

 **A/N: Hope you all liked this chapter! I decided to update the story before finals hit because otherwise it would take me even longer again. Thanks for reading.**


End file.
